Big'un

Here's my watercolor example. I wanted to do this example after my Dad's dog, Big'un. I couldn't find a picture so I got a picture off the internet and "imagined" Big'un as a pup.

I did a mistake when I did the pup first instead of doing the lighter color grass and then the darker colors of the puppy, instead of using the latter to coverup my mistakes. Overall, it is a good piece, but my paint strokes on the dog are a little off. I love the dog's eye, and I'm a little worried about my shading. It seems to come from all over the place.

What do you think?

Watercolor Project

Watercolor is the perfect medium for capturing light and color in nature. The paint is mostly transparent and while the fluid nature of the watercolor makes it unpredictable, the range of effects it can create makes up for it. Watercolor, or aquarelle in French, is used in a series of washes, allowing the light to reflect on the underlying paper. This layering creates a rich and vibrant effect by allowing the colors to be mixed by the viewers eye. This transparency also makes it difficult and sometimes unforgiving to work with. If a mistake occurs, it cannot be simply painted over, although most of it can be lifted off with water. Watercolors first appeared in China and Japan. Watercolor painting is intertwined with the history of paper, invented in China around 100 AD. From then on, both spread. The first primary forms of watercolor painting for the Medieval and Renaissance artists was fresco: painting with water-based pigments on wet plaster (the Sistine Chapel is the most famous, painted from 1508-1512). Albrecht Durer (German, 1471-1528) was traditionally considered to be the first master of watercolor. [The painting of A Young Hare, done by Durer in 1502, is to the top left.] Over the next 250 years, many other artists continued to use watercolor, but mainly as a tool for drawing and developing compositions. The classic style of watercolor painting was developed in England, 18th and 19th centuries with the introduction of high-quality paper. This is when special watercolor paper was designed that would allow the artist to lift the watercolor from the paper and work with it. The watercolor movement was led by the talented watercolorist Joseph M.W. Turner (English, 1775-1851), a great painter from the 19th century. [His Conway Castle, North Wales, is to the bottom right and was finished in 1798.] Some other classic watercolorists are Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, and James A.M. Whistler. This historical information was collected and paraphrased from: http://documents.stanford.edu/67/2869. I highly encourage you to click on this, which will allow you to look at watercolor paintings from Winslow Homer, an American artist. This website is the from the National Gallery of Art. It does not just include some of his paintings, but information on him and on every single piece of artwork. I encourage you to look at some of his afterword paintings, not just the ones on that first page. There are 344-but don't worry! You do not have to look at them all.

If you want help/inspiration go to this website!!!

Me and Christen are presenting a collage. We had an idea of making something fun and creative for it :) this picture is a good example of what we are aiming for. Its very inspirational. This image came from windows 7 desktop.

Collage

Bethany and I are doing a presentation about what a collage is and how to make a collage. A collage is a form of art that uses different materials such as pictures, fabric, and different types of paper etc. which are all arranged and pasted to a backing. Some collages are more personal with photographs and some are just about fun. You have to create a theme or a certain look that you want to try to achieve when making your collage. Some artists will paint on a canvas and glue objects on to it after the painting to give it a 3D affect this is also considered a collage. These pictures are a few different collages to give you some ideas to start. We will be doing our presentation Monday January 23 so make sure you have an idea of what you would like to do for your collage. You may use any types of materials such as glitter, fabric, buttons etc.. If you have anything specific you wish to use on your collage such as personal photographs or something else please be sure to bring it with you to class on Monday January 23 (we will also be presenting our example of a collage on this date as well). Thanks Everyone! To formally give credit where credit is due the collage of the dog is called "DOG ART: Boxer Dog Pop Art Collage" by Michel Keck and you can look at more of his collages on his website ModernDogArt.com. The other collage is called "P390 - Front & Center 3D Collage w/Story" by Crystal Neubauer and you can look at more of her collages on her blog called "Crystal Neubauer art and objects."

Masashi Kishimoto

I chose Masashi Kishimoto because I am a real big fan of his work. Masashi is a Japanese manga artist and is known for creating the manga Naruto. I love all his little details that he puts into his characters because you can see just about every exspresstion in their face of in their actions, and you truly get to see the character come to life. I am a BIG fan of Naruto and even draw anime myself (not as good as Masashi but I still draw it) :).

Annual Oconee & Pickens County Student/Teacher Art Show

The Blue Ridge Arts Council and the World of Energy have partnered with the School District of Oconee and Pickens Counties once again to showcase the artwork of students and teachers.
The show will consist of three student works of art and a piece from each art teacher.

The World of Energy will host the opening reception on Thursday, January 12, from 3:00 -7:00 p.m. which is open to the public. Admission is free. The show will remain open until Febuary 11, 2012 and will be available for viewing during regular business hours. The World of Energy is located at 7812 Rochester Highway, Seneca, SC 29678. Open Monday - Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Saturday from noon until 5:00 p.m.

Ash

In art class, I presented a powerpoint presentation about a great animator named Hayao Miyazaki. He began as an animator for the Towi Douga studio, but later after the success of his movie Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind he established his own studio, Studio Ghibli. He has created many of my favorite movies such as; Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, and the latest, Ponyo.

Keith Haring

In Mrs. Glenn's art class each student has to present a certain artist to talk about. I chose keith Haring because I admired how is work often portrayed deeper meaning into his simplistic style of art.

Keith Haring devoted much of his time to public works, which often carried social messages. He produced more than 50 public artworks between 1982 and 1989, in dozens of cities around the world, many of which were created for charities, hospitals, children’s day care centers and orphanages.

Marilyn VonTengeln, multi-medium art and encaustics

My 'Artist of the Week' presentation was on Marilyn VonTungeln, an artist born in South Carolina. She was always interested in art, producing amazing pastel pieces (right) at the young age of sixteen. Later in life, however, she moved to Texas, a state whose endless rolling deserts would inspire a range of landscape pieces from her. What I always thought had set her apart, however, was her use of encaustics. The encaustic medium involves melting wax onto a small iron and smearing the resulting liquid wax onto a canvas similar to posterboard; thick and smooth. Once wet, the wax could be manipulated using a range of tools, but the result is a beautiful piece that maintains texture and dries with a reflective scene, like Marilyn's "Two's Company" (left).

Her talent was more than enough to get her into several art groups and a mall gallery, her work being influential enough that now, barely a year after her death, she is still celebrated with the presentation of the Marilyn VonTungeln Memorial Award, a $100 recognition given by the Rio Bravo Water colorists Association to members of their group. Her legacy continued through her daughter, Brenda, who briefly help a career as an appliance manual illustrator and a 3D design artist. Brenda also home-taught her daughters (me and my sister) in art, and I hope to live up to her good name. -Twin the Younger

Inking heroes to life - Jim Lee

My artist presentation was on Jim Lee, comic book illustrator extraordinaire! He stopped his education in the medical field to become a comic book artist, and boy, did it ever pay off. He has been special ordered for graphic novels with top notch writers ever since, his latest and famous being the Batman graphic novel, Hush (my absolute favorite thus far). Check him out sometime - it'll be worth it.

What I envy most is his perfect fabrication of human proportions and body. Young or old, buff or scrawny, landing a kick or taking a nap, Lee can draw them.-Twin 1

Ruth Thompson~Fantasy Artist

Pic Title: Brotherhood of the Sea

Ruth Thompson was born in Ohio and is a University of Alabama Graduate (1990). She originally wanted to have a career involving Biology and majored in it for the first three years in collage. Thompson eventually looked into Art classes in collage and ended up with a degree in Graphic Design. She wandered from job to job doing fantasy illustrations for collectible card games, magazines, board games, books, and role-playing games. Her final job was at Steve Jackson Games, Texas. Tired of working for others, she moved back to Alabama and started her own company called Tarnished Images (you can visit her website at www.tarnishedimages.com. Tarnished Images started with her attending or mailing in artwork to fantasy and science-fiction conventions and the occasional free-lance job. She still does that, but also includes her website, where you can order canvases of her paintings. Some are even signed and numbered.
Ruth Thompson uses oils and watercolors on every piece of work and she likes to combine both of the mediums. Her favorite medium is oils that allow her easier blending with colors and for detailed areas like faces. For her base, Thompson uses illustration board and pencil. With bigger paintings, she’ll do under-painting (something like an ink wash). After roughing some places, she’ll start painting. Any questions about her artwork can ban be found on her website at www.tarnishedimages.com/faq.htm. She sells original pencil works along with her paintings-although some are limited editions. Her paintings range from $25-$200. She also does figurines and cinch bags through other companies.
I originally found Ruth Thompson through a poster website and bought a poster of a dragon painting she did (if you want to cheat and not pay for the painting-posters are the way to go!!) It is called Equinox. Anyway, I fell in love with her style of painting and her themes. I love the prancing horses, dangerous dragons, and strong characters. But mostly the horses (duh :p). Please, please go to her website!! There are way too many pictures for me to show you! It would take hours!!

All About .... Michael Godard

I did a power-point presentation a couple of weeks ago about Michael Godard. Michael Godard is known as the "Rockstar of the Art World" and is currently the #1 best selling artist in the United States. He attended the University of Nevada for Fine Arts in Las Vegas and after he also attended The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He is an artist that is in the media a lot he has been featured in several magazines and has been on television shows such as Inked, American Casino, and Chris Angel's Mind Freak. He wrote a book called "Don't Drink and Draw" which is about his life and art, it was awarded The Art Book of the Year. Godard really wants his art to include his lighthearted perspective on life through his animated olives, and dancing strawberries. His medium is mostly oil on canvas but he does also work with other mediums such as ink and sharpies. Godard is a modern take on surrealism but he also takes famous people in history and replaces them with his olives. "Godard's unique portrayal of fun is an exciting combination of imagination and often subtle humor which evoke and engage the creative side in "Olive" us." You can view more of his art at:

http://www.michaelgodard.com/index.html Look him up!!! He is my fav!!!! Thanks!!! -love, Christen

Artist of the Week

For the second quarter, Art 3 and Art 4 students will each week present an artist of their choice. Each student has picked a week to make their presentation. They will present their artist to the class and post a short blog on that artist and why they chose that artist.

Trees. Always Trees.

The set of trees on the left are part of my watercolor tree project; I intend to combine them wth two other trees (also in watercolor) and mount them on black paper. The leftmost tree is River Birch which the others are Fir, I am pleased with the way they turned out and how their species is obvious from my painting. I tried to focus on the individuality of the kind of tree and capture it, and it worked well I think.

The set on the right is the weaker project, something i am still working on. It is meant to contrast colors amongst the same tree species (Maple.) Although the blue color sceme is unrealistic, I enjoy it and plan to pen two others...perhaps a green one and a purple; complementary colors fascinate me. I also intend to mount the finished four on black paper, and suggestions as to the color of the two I have yet to draw are welcome.

~Kate

weakness...

N is for Naive.

I'm not sure if the message is displayed very well in this picture, and I'm not happy with the colors... they do not fit in with the other cards I've made.

Mr. N,

... you are a lone wolf.

~

Any suggestions are welcome and greatly appreciated.

I love the blog for this reason, don't get rid of it Please!

Help me keep the blog by helping me fix my art work :)

Much Love

Gretta

Weakness

Too simple of a line drawing.

Harry Potter ABC Cards

A- Albus Dumbledore
G- Golden Snitch
N- Nimbus 2000

About time . . .

Here you have it Mrs. G.

montains

These mountains look a little sketchy the color too me doesn’t match the rest of the cards but makes the mountains stand out a bit, the gray and brown is what I was going for so it can look a bit smoky, the rays of light seemed to have help, let me know what you guys think.

Weak

I began this piece before my style change. Originally I intended to do whole figurines but I quickly realized how impossible it would have been to complete by the deadline. I'm contemplating: finish the existing Captain America or redo him. The redone version would likely be a zoomed in view of his face and chest or possibly just face. He would be done in sharpies instead of pastels. Advice please.